About this objectOska Lappin has been awarded the 2026 Open Artists Prize, for her stoneware vessel The Cockatoo. Her ceramic artworks have been informed by her career as a printmaker spanning twenty-five years. The transferable skills gained have informed her unique ceramic pieces. The change in medium has allowed for the development of ceramic vessels as more than just a surface for paint. The vessel itself acts alongside surface texture, mark making and painted figures to create meaningful detailed pieces.
Lappin’s artworks are primarily coil vessels that explore multiple, sometimes contradictory, narratives. She gains her inspiration from a variety of sources, including mythology, fairytales, personal experiences, poems and nature. The balance between the fantasy and the natural, intertwines the real and imaginary into her ceramics. Lappin often incorporates layered, uneven textural surfaces, alongside detailed imagery imbuing the pieces with a unique sense of meaning. The hand-built coil work adds to the historic quality of her work. Symbols and imagery surrounding women and plants, add to the mythological narratives.
The winning piece, The Cockatoo is inspired by Wallace Stevens’ poem Sunday Morning. The early-mid twentieth century poet references cockatoos, introducing them to the poem as birds of freedom. As the poem continues, Stevens explores multiple depictions of the birds. In the stoneware vessel Lappin combines these poetic depictions with the female figure. The Cockatoo features snippets from Stevens’ poem including ‘The pungent orange and bright green’ and ‘the green freedom of the cockatoo’. The use of small sections of the poem separated from each other by female figures and imagery, add to the mythological sense and allow for viewers’ individual interpretations. Alongside poetry referencing the bird, a cockatoo appears as one of the vessel’s handles, while another two cockatoos face female figures dressed in grey and blue.
